Talk through the next round of experiments: take stick to real world inside backpack and then return; take stick in backpack to real world and remove it from backpack. Discussion whether to allow Kanocel to come with them. Seems fine. First experiment: Kanocel happily plods into the building after the party. ro Whoa! We are going to be going to our world. Remember what we said about things from here disintegrating. vio Kanocel, come with me, we'll practice the pan pipes some more. tr You can come if you want to disintegrate. vio Troll, shut up. ro You are not allowed here. I'm sorry, but I don't know what will happen to you and I can't risk that. kan Can I go in the building at least? ro No. If you decide to make a break for it… kan I won't, I promise! ro Look, I was internally conflicted with actually even bringing you here. You are privileged to be here. You can wait outside and we will tell you what happens. In fact, if we can, we will show you what happens. We will bring the results to you. vio takes Kanocel's hand and takes him off to play the pan pipes.

Experiment 1: the stick survives. Experiment 2: the stick is fine while in the backpack but disintegrates shortly after being removed. There is nothing to retrieve to show Kanocel.

lio repeats with a leaf, watching carefully the process of disintegration. It appears to be disintegration rather than a greatly accelerated aging process.

ari asks the druids about planar protection spells. They exist, they all have durations and neither of them have any prepared today.

ro Just thinking aloud here. Since I can't take anything back to show Kanocel, I am thinking of allowing him into the building and opening the door so he can see what happens. ari One more thing that I would like to do to confirm where the process starts. lio Yes, because if it is in the room, Kanocel will die straight away.

Ariel takes a stick from the dusk world into the building, closes the door, opens it and stays in the building monitoring the condition of the stick. It is fine. She then pokes half of the stick through the open doorway. The stick maintains its shape. ari Interesting! It seems like this room is not part of the dawn world when the door is open to the dawn. I'd quite like to cast a spell from here into the dusk world. This is curiosity, it's actually not important from the point of view of the arcanites, so maybe we should delay. ro This is not taking a great deal of time. As long as it is not perceivably dangerous, you may continue. I will be in the room with you when you do this. Choose your spell well. ari I need Troll as well to arrange the situation.

Situation organised.

ari casts Light on a patch of grass in the dusk world, through the open door. tr, ro and ari make reflex saves: ro 15, ari 30, tr 18. It starts to illuminate, and continues to get brighter and brighter. It is surprising to ari that it gets this bright and starts to hurt her eyes. She averts her gaze in time - as does everyone else. It then immediately fades away.

Whoops, Light has a range of touch…

lio offers one of his arrows for ari to cast Light on in the room. ari does so. Light appears as expected… then dims suddenly. It then spreads along the entire arrow, then up ari's arm. Then it dims again, returns and spreads farther up ari's arm. It keeps dimming and brightening and spreading, before finally fading away. ari OK… It seems as if this room is always counted as being in the dusk realm.

ari takes a dusk-world stick into the room, closes and opens the door, then holds the entire stick out the doorway without leaving the room. In a short time the stick starts to turn grey and sag slightly. She yanks the stick back inside the room. The stick regains its colour and stiffens up.

kan What happened guys? ari Hang on. ro We have one or two more tests to perform to determine how safe it is. Kanocel goes back to his pan pipe practice. He can reliably play two notes now.

ari and lio go through to dawn, cast light on an arrow while fully in the dawn world, then carry it through into the dusk world. The spell is cast successfully. Upon entering the building, lio (spot 29) notices that the light flickers a little. They get Troll to open the door and walk through to the dusk world, their eyes on the lit tip. lio (spot 31) does not see any further difference. The light appears to be functioning normally.

ro We have found out enough to ensure that it is as safe as we can make it for Kanocel to be in the building and see what happens. OK? The party nod. ro OK, Kanocel, can you fetch me a branch. Quite a big one if you can. tr I have a large spanner. What do the teachers think of us doing this? ro I did think of that. I am weighing that up against the object lesson that might actually save Kanocel's life I am not capable of watching over him every single minute until we can get a teacher here. tr But shouldn't it be the teachers' call? ari I think it should be the teachers and the arcanite adults that make this decision. I have been happy doing experiments but I think Kanocel needs the guidance of older heads. ro Knowing Kanocel, I think the best guidance we could possibly give him is to show him. There is nothing like putting your hand in the fire to know that it burns. I am conflicted though, I agree with what you are saying. Shall I make the call, or shall we put this to a vote? tr I think we should all make the call.

ro Very well. I vote a marginal yes that we should proceed. tr I vote that we shouldn't. ari I vote no, we should consult the teachers and the arcanites. lio Really? ari Yes. Children need structure. Rules are very useful things until you can do without them. lio I vote yes, on a condition: that tr has a finger pointing at Kanocel at all times and that Rowaine is ready to tackle him and that I can have my bow out. ro So far we are two for and two against. Calico? cal I don't care. ro Then Violet has the deciding vote. Violet? vio I am a bit worried about Kanocel because he can just decide what he wants to do and make things appear. I am concerned for his safety more than anything. So I would probably say no. ro We are all concerned for his safety. But I respect your decision. Votes cast. Kanocel? The arcanite approaches with a stick, very excited. ro I'm afraid not. kan Why? ro I'm sorry that I raised your hopes. I shouldn't have. kan But you guys said I could go in the building! ari We need to be advised by the teachers and your grown-up people. Kanocel turns around and flies away, towards nothing the party know of. vio Shall I go after him? ro No, let him go. I hope he will be alright. ari That's OK, we all get angry sometimes when we don't get what we want. ro Yes but not many of us can lift four-ton boulders and hurl them around. ari They must have some way to cope with that, if they have children here. ro So far, all we've seen is them being told not to. Perhaps that's why there aren't lots of them any more.

Kanocel is out of sight.

The party head back to the settlement and tell the teachers what they have learned and what has transpired. The teachers decline a demonstration of the destructive nature of the portal at this stage. ro It may also pay to start thinking about security when we are leaving. Any one of us has the key to open the door back to our world. All it would take is for them to bolt, and we have a tragedy on our hands. It is a potential threat. The teachers express their understanding and say that they think that while the party are around that it probably won't be an issue. Especially because they are getting along so well with the arcanites. ro Goodwill is currency. tea Even though we now know we can leave this realm whenever we like, we still intend to leave with you. It is an important message for the arcanites.

Rowaine and Violet practice their songs. Afterwards Rowaine asks what everyone wants to do next. ari talks about returning to her search for dragons and asks Rowaine whether she might take to Minehome to ask the dwarves there. Rowaine agrees, after the teachers have made their decision as to how long they intend this stay to be.

The time of the concert nears and there is no sign of Kanocel. The party is approached by an arcanite with a baby in her hands, and Hamuleilin. ham I believe you have met this one before, this is Sharionnalon. She was reborn while you were not here. ro She was your elder, wasn't she? ham Yes. ro Who is the current elder now? Is it you? ham Yes. I am now Hamweleilenon.

ro Thank you for the introduction. How is baby Sharionnalon doing? ham Fine. She is just called Shar at the moment. ro Tell me, have you seen Kanocel? ham Not yet.

ari asks Hamweleilenon a few details about the ending and rebirth process the arcanites undergo. ham Once we reach the end of our cycle we stop being for some time. Our physical form remains but we stop thinking and being. ari The elder Sharionnalon left behind a physical body? ham Yes, which then quickly dissipated and formed into the baby that you see now. ari Was it expected? ham It happens all the time.

Evening approaches and the arcanites gather for the concert. Minutes before the start ro and vio see a little boy - Kanocel. He is holding his pipes and is avoiding eye contact with any of the party. vio Shall we…? ro I think it would be a really good idea to go on your own. At the moment I'm probably a little bit of the bad guy. I think he might react more positively to you.

Before Violet has the chance to talk to him, Kanocel walks up in front of her and Rowaine, faces the audience and begins to play his pipes. It is a tune that Violet practiced with him before. After a few bars, she joins in. Rowaine doesn't know the tune, but manages to adapt the words of a dwarven hymn to sing along. The concert finishes and the arcanites are very excited by the performance. Violet reminds Kanocel to bow. He does so, then graces Violet with a small smile. Some of the arcanites come up and give the trio hugs. They are room temperature, it is a little off-putting. Some arcanites hang around, wanting to talk about music. Violet takes Kanocel aside for a little chat. She tries to reassure him that the others are sorry about what happened and that they were only doing what they thought was right. Kanocel expresses that he is not ready to talk to the others yet. Instead, they practice with their pan pipes. ro looks encouragingly at Violet.

The teachers are due to come back to the party tomorrow with their decision of how long they intend to stay. The party decide to stay in the realm until then. They spend another night.

The next morning Violet wakes up in the woods with Kanocel nearby, waiting. kan I wanted to talk but I was told it was rude to wake people. Violet suppresses a shudder. vio That's OK. What did you want to talk about? kan I wanted you to show me how to do that shapechanging thing. vio I can't do that just at the moment. It would be showing you the way of the druids. You can only learn if you are a druid. kan That would be awesome! Can I be a druid? vio It takes a very long time. kan I've been here a long time. Can I be a druid? vio You need to be taught by a teacher druid. kan Those teachers, are they druids? vio No. kan Next time you bring a teacher, can you bring a druid teacher? I want to do that shapechanging. vio I'll see if I can find one - but I'll need to talk to the others about it as well - the teachers and my friends. kan OK, I understand. vio Would you like to have breakfast with me and my friends? kan I have things that I want to do right now, but I might come back later. vio You are more than welcome. He flies off.

The party join in with the teachers' curriculum for the rest of the day. In the evening the teachers tell the party they wish to stay for a further six weeks. They have brought enough provisions for two weeks but will need more dropped off.

Rowaine suggests dropping off six weeks worth of dry rations and water in the building. Or with the teachers. Decide to take it straight through to the teachers. Rowaine also adds a cask of ale to the supplies. The party will check in on the teachers when Troll is next available. Troll mentions Feren as a possibility - but definitely not Ethalyn, she is too precious.

What to do next? Go to Minehome to find out about dragons? Search out the dracolich? There are no leads and the party are not actively looking for any… Check with all of the locations that the party have relationships with, e.g. Ashhope, Aquilla..? Visit Harkon, the other Trina-like tree on the other continent? Likely more than a two-week sidetrek…